Common decency. It’s not a new concept. It did not suddenly appear as a slogan used to market any product or person. It was not born out of a great speech. It has no copyright and none can claim it as their own.

When Robert Novak was diagnosed with his malignant brain tumor (as Ted Kennedy was) we posted here at ~J’s~ wishing him well. It’s not necessary to have the same political ideology with or even to like a person to feel compassion in a time of illness. Common decency. That’s all it is.

In reading this piece by Mr. Novak, both sides of this issue come to light.

First, the helping hand extended by the Kennedy family (who by his own admission Mr. Novak has shown very little kindness in his writings.)

My dear friend, the Democratic political operative Bob Shrum, asked Sen. Kennedy’s wife, Vicki, to call me about Dr. Friedman. I barely know Mrs. Kennedy, but I have found her to be a warm and gracious person. I have had few good things to say about Teddy Kennedy since I first met him at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, but he and his wife have treated me like a close friend. She was enthusiastic about Dr. Friedman and urged me to opt for surgery at Duke, which I did.

The Kennedys were not concerned by political and ideological differences when someone’s life was at stake, recalling at least the myth of milder days in Washington. My long conversation with Vicki Kennedy filled me with hope.

And then, this:

There are mad bloggers who profess to take delight in my distress, but there’s no need to pay them attention in the face of such an outpouring of good will for me. I had thought 51 years of rough-and-tumble journalism in Washington made me more enemies than friends, but my recent experience suggests the opposite may be the case.

But Joe and Valerie Wilson, attempting to breathe life into the Valerie Plame “scandal,” issued this statement: “We have long argued that responsible adults should take Novak’s typewriter away. The time has arrived for them to also take away the keys to his Corvette.”

Thanks to my tumor, the Wilsons have achieved half of their desires. I probably never will be able to drive again, and I have sold the Corvette, which I dearly loved. Taking away my typewriter, however, may require modification of the First Amendment.

How pathetically sad that in the face of death of another some take delight.

Mr. Novak is fortunate to have found friends in places he never imagined. Those with whom he has disagreed who have shown their common decency, they are to be commended. To the Plames and those who choose their path which is one of hurling nothing but empty insults, well, there is still time to learn. It really isn’t that hard.

I couldn’t have done any better if I were trying to say what he seems to be saying, but then I’m not known as a great orator.

Here’s a video of Sen. Obama addressing a crowd without a teleprompter.

Was he trying to be so wonkish that it backfired?

John McCain before his acceptance speech.

If you were looking for a speech that stands out in your memory years later, such as some given by great orators in our country’s history; George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK, Reagan or even Barack Obama, you would have been disappointed in Sen. John McCain’s acceptance speech for the nomination of the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.

Everyone knows his delivery leaves a lot to be desired and he is more comfortable talking one on one in town hall-type situations. Last night he addressed America, and had the unenviable chore of speaking the night after the electrifying speech of his running mate.

He threw in a little red meat, but not a lot. He spoke of his personal history and told why his experience as a POW changed him and made him fall in love with his country because he was in another. He said it wasn’t the comforts of home he missed so much as the culture of kindness and stick-to-it-ivness Americans show. (Paraphrasing)

Now that he has explained why that awful time in his life was a milestone for him, it’s time for his surrogates to drop the POW subject and for him to be less specific and answer the questions of how that experience changed his life to make him want to serve the American people the rest of his life.

He talked of our education system, workers who have lost jobs, medical insurance and about the fact he has not always agreed with the Republican party, giving him the nickname of Maverick.

He said the greatest civil rights issue today is education. He told us when a person loses his/her job the government should make sure they are made whole (a union term meaning pay would be the same; my words and not his) until they can get trained and back up in the pay range they were in when they lost their jobs.

He talked about people losing their homes and struggling to pay for gas for their cars and oil for their homes. He is an “all of the above” person when it comes to energy policy. Drill for new oil, use clean coal, natural gas, wind power, nuclear power (more plants), electric cars and any other technology we as Americans can come up with.

In short, he recognized the economy is not as good as it could or should be and shows he has a grasp of the kitchen table issues every American has to deal with daily.

He spoke against the last Republican Congress while adressing a Republican convention. He said the Republicans had lost the House and Senate because they got full of themselves, got corrupt and spent too foolishly. Hard medicine for any person serving during those years, but medicine that has to be taken in order to get better again.

He spoke against earmarks and said if he is elected and a bill with a lot of earmark spending comes to him he will veto the bill and make famous the name(s) of the people inserting the pork. Of course he addressed the national security issues and his beliefs on that topic.

He said he will fight for the Amercian people and not for his party when he disagrees with the party. This struck me as the theme of the night as I listened. I kept thinking “here is a man who says he wants to work across the aisle and with Democrats as well as Independents and Republicans to do what is right for our country. Sen. Obama, on the other hand, delivered a red meat speech and has a record that shows he will not deviate from the party message.”

I also thought of President Bush promising and trying to do the same thing, but he found out the politics in Washington are not like the politics locally, and while someone is smiling at your face he or she is stabbing you in the back and twisting the knife.

Washington politicians don’t want to co-operate; they just want to bloviate and get all the credit for whatever. McCain said they could all take the credit, but urged all Americans to come together for the betterment of our country.

He was not specific in what he has accomplished in a bi-partisan way, but perhaps he thought everyone knew what he had done to earn the nick-name of Maverick.

His closing was very strong and he delivered his lines in spite of the crowd standing and cheering through the last one or two paragraphs. These were the people who had worked in the trenches to make sure he got the nomination and they were not going to be denied their right to gloat last night.

I came away remembering Sen. Obama’s speech a week before and remembering the theme of Sen. McCain’s speech last night thinking that if we elect McCain/Palin we have a chance to put the adults in charge and forget about party politics, or we can elect Obama/Biden and watch at least four more years of political grandstanding and the accomplishment of nothing. No deviation from the party.

I have chosen to stick with the adults even if the head of the ticket is not as dynamic a speaker as his running mate or his opponent. In the end it is actions that count and for those actions we have only to examine the records of the two Presidential candidates first, and then the records of the Vice Presidential candidates. I think McCain/Palin stand head and shoulders above Obama/Biden. Feel free to disagree in the comments section. You can also feel free to agree in the comments section.

Following is Sen. McCain’s speech for you to see if you missed it or want to see it again. Our thanks to Hot Air for the video link. I wanted to include the biography of Cindy McCain but so far I have been unable to locate anything but her introductory speech of her husband. You can imagine what she said and you’ll be right.